Radio Feedback: Emeli Sandé’s Early Morning Taxi Cab Confessions

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Welcome to Radio Feedback, Radio.com’s weekly feature where we ask artists to wax nostalgic on the first time they heard themselves on the radio.

The first time Emeli Sandé heard herself on the radio, she was in a taxi on her way back from a London studio. It was 4 o’clock in the morning and the city appeared to be asleep. Sandé, on the other hand, was wide awake.

The singer told Radio.com that she’s at her most creative in the wee hours of the night. Rarely does she write a song before 2 a.m. “At those hours I’m at my most relaxed,” she explained. “Everyone else is asleep, you have nothing to worry about. I feel my mind is a lot freer.”

While relaxing in the back seat of the car, she managed to make out her first U.K. single, “Heaven” — off her debut, Our Version Of Events – playing faintly on the radio.

Though she was riding by herself, she wasn’t completely alone. She shared the momentous occasion with the cabbie, whom Sandé admitted had no idea who she was. To his defense, Sandé had not become the household name she is now. Either way, the moment became a memorable one.

“It was very picturesque,” Sandé explained. “London was empty. No one was on the streets and it was such a beautiful moment.”